Technical Field
The present invention relates to data retransmission, and in particular, relates to methods for retransmitting reverse link data and apparatuses using the same.
Description of the Related Art
At the level of interconnected network systems, protocol schemes have been developed to facilitate the exchange of data among multiple elements of the system. A protocol scheme specifies the manner of interpreting every data bit of a data packet exchanged across the networks. In order to simplify network design, several well-known techniques of layering the protocols have been developed. Protocol layering divides the network design into functional layers and then assigns separate protocols to perform each layer's task.
In a data retransmission mechanism, an upper layer is responsible for comprehending information of a SACK (Selective Acknowledgement) order, which indicates which frames have been successfully transmitted to the network, but the lower layer does not have the capability to comprehend the content of a SACK order. The lower layer cannot know which frames have been successfully transmitted to the network through received data after instructing RF (radio frequency) circuits to transmit data via a reverse link frame by frame. It may cause the lower layer to mistakenly instruct the RF hardware to retransmit the frames, which have been successfully transmitted, after receiving a data retransmission command from the upper layer, resulting in the unnecessary occupation of network bandwidth.
Methods for retransmitting reverse link data and apparatuses using the same are needed so as to have the lower layer instruct the RF circuits to retransmit frames that have not been successfully transmitted correctly. Therefore, the unnecessary occupation of network bandwidth may be avoided.